Arsenal face Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday night and Arsene Wenger is under no illusions as to the enormity of the task facing his Arsenal side. The amazing trio of Messi, Neymar and Suarez have been amazing this season, however, the Arsenal manager reserved special praise for Luis Suarez.

Arsenal had made a cheeky bid of £40m + £1 for the striker and Wenger admitted that he used to think of the “what if” scenario before. “It happened to me before but not now,” the Arsenal manager mused.

The Frenchman went on to praise Suarez saying that not only does he score a hatful of goals, he also plays selflessly and improves the other players.

“Suárez gives that to a team. He did it at Liverpool, he did it playing for Uruguay with Cavani and Forlán and did it well. Suárez is the kind of guy who manages to create that spirit in teams.”

Wenger also went on to praise the bond between the front three of Barcelona saying:

“Apart from the individual talent the three have, they have a great solidarity. When you see someone like Messi, who could score his 300th goal , give the ball to Suárez when he had the opportunity to score that means there’s really something in there.”

0-1 (6'): Luis Suarez is the first player to score 25 league goals this season in the top 5 leagues. Gonzalo Higuáin has 24 goals.

Suarez is leading the goal-scoring charts in Europe this season and Arsenal will have to defend with everything they have got if they want to stop him from adding to his impressive tally.

Arsenal cannot be stupid against Barcelona says Wenger

Arsene Wenger admitted that they might have to defend deep against Barcelona sometimes, saying that his side can ill-afford to be stupid against the mighty Catalans

“Looking recently in these big games, in the first tie at home we can’t be stupid,” he warns. “Many times we’ve won away and at home we’ve conceded. We have to find a good balance between defending and attacking. Individually, all their players are difficult to stop. We have to find a way to do it collectively.”

“I believe that at some point in the game we’ll have to be deep because of the way they play. You can’t always stop them high.”

The balance between defence and attack is the key for Arsene Wenger’s men if they are to have any hope of securing a positive result against Barcelona.